Try Chivla Beach this summer – a weekend getaway from Goa

Like last year, this summer too, we decided to give Goan beaches a miss and instead visited a serene, virgin beach at a not-well-known place called Chivla in our neighboring state. Chivla beach is located in a tiny village at a walking distance from Malwan in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.

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While the Goan beaches are flooded with tourists from all over the world, over the years, my love for them has reduced. It could be because of the overly crowdedness and commercialization of these beaches. Somehow, I don’t find that same tranquility which I witnessed here during my regular summer trips to these beaches, since my childhood.

Goa no more has a tourist season now! People flock to this place all throughout the year and some even don’t return to their home land.

I was looking for something, where I could be all by myself with the nature – just the roaring sea and me! And Chivla Beach was a wise choice.

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Malwan too is getting highly commercialized and many tourists prefer it, mainly for two reasons – the place is not as crowded as Goan beaches and most importantly it’s cheap compared to Goan exorbitant Dining and Accommodation rates.

This place is not for you if you are looking for a pampered resort style luxurious beach stay or be in the midst of hippies on a shack gulping down gallons of beer!

The beach – the location

This place is for someone looking for a secluded, serene and ‘almost your own’ private beach, where one can relax on the hammock outside your room, watching tiny boats taking on the sea, hard-working fishermen busy sorting their daily catch and local kids immersed into a match of cricket at the shore…

If this is not enough, in the evening you can be one with the nature, watching the sun set over the roaring sea hitting the shore incessantly! A view worth capturing on a canvas!

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And at what cost is this? The entire vacation for a 2-night’s stay for couple with child was less than half the cost of a beach-side resort (stay only) in Goa!

However unfortunately we also noticed, the shore had turned ugly at places – because of Mother Nature throwing back at us, the same nonsense we quietly immerse inside her!

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The Stay – Mayekar’s Holiday Home

Chivla offers many home-stays – a more traditional, affordable and acceptable form of accommodation.

Having read good reviews, we chose ‘Mayekar’s Holiday Home’ [MHH] for our 2 nights stay. The guesthouse is at a splendid location, just few meters away from the sea shore. The rooms are basic however offer a superb sea-view with plenty of breeze to keep you company throughout the day. It’s a treat to watch the sun set, while you sip tea alongwith hot Bhajiya lazing on the hammocks outside your room.

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There are options for AC and Non AC rooms.

MHH is owned by a local Mr. Prasanna Mayenkar who shares his home with the air conditioned Blue rooms, while the Non AC Red rooms are besides the house. Red rooms are much closer to the sea and bigger in size to accommodate a family of 4. Blue Rooms are smaller suitable for a couple.

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The place offers basic amenities: a double bed with bed-side tables, a table with 4 chairs in the verandah, hot water from 7:00AM, mosquito net/coil, a service bell in the room. The linens could have been better and should have provided soap or a hand-wash! It serves morning tea/coffee options with breakfast and evening tea/snacks on advance notice. If you don’t want to go too far for dinner, there is a home-food option behind the property of Mayekar’s.

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Breakfast options: Upma, Poha, Shira, Bread-omelet, Tea/Milk/Coffee. Chilled Water bottle@Rs.20/-

Evening tea with snacks like Bhajia can be ordered. The preparation takes about 20-30 mins.

Lunch/Dinner: This guest house does not offer Lunch/Dinner options. For this, you can visit any of the nearby home-turned-restaurants.

Security/Safety: One could feel kind of insecure when the place gets darkened with not many lights around and not much security around the home-stay. However, Malwani people are known to be softhearted and we felt at home during our long stroll on the empty road in front of the guest house in the night.

The food: relish on Sea-food!

There is a place at the backyard of MHH, which serves home cooked meals. One needs to place an order at least 2-3 hours in advance. For vegetarian there is a typical Maharashtrian meal with Rice, Chapati, Bhaji, Papad, Pickle, Daal, Solkadhi. For others, there is variety of Fish options to choose from.

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Malwan has many other restaurants which are famous for serving fresh fish preparations. To name a few: Chaitanya, Saiba, Atithi Bamboo, Ghar Mithbaunkaranche (they are also the caterers for MTDC resorts at Tarkarli).

We had a day meal at Chaitanya – our repeat visit. However, felt the taste had degraded since our last trip to Tarkarli. You would find plenty of good reviews of it and the place is usually over-crowded. When I say I did not like the preparation much: it could be because of my liking for Goan way of cooking sea food and the same may not be true for people traveling from various other parts of the country as at the table next to us, we were hearing a Mumbai party going all praises for the food!

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There are plenty of fish & sea-food options with prices same as what I mentioned earlier. To give you an idea of prices, we had a Surmayee [King-Fish] Thali for 250/- (medium size rawa fried piece of Kingfish, Kingfish Curry with Chapati and Rice], a ‘Kalwa Thali’ at 280/- (One portion of Kalwa Masala, one small rawa fried Crab, Kalwa Curry with Chapati and Rice].

You can try Fruitkhand – srikhand with fruits or ‘Aamrakhand’ for desserts.

Downside

Crowded!! And obviously this is the reason for other problems like delay in taking orders and eventually in serving. The place is on a busy congested lane of Malwan market and hence taking your car and parking is a big pain. I would recommend parking the vehicle in an open space, just when you take a right turn to go to Tarkarli. From here, the restaurant is just about 5 mins walk.

The attraction

Besides Malwan, which has multiple options, Tsunami Island at Devbag is one of the major attractions to enjoy some watersports. Devbag is about 4 KMs from Tarkarli, which is about 7 KMs from Malwan.

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You will need to hire a motor boat, which will take you to an amazing place – a small island in the middle of nowhere, close to ‘Sangam’ of Karli river and Malwan sea.

The boat is costly affair if you have a small family as it charges 1000/- for a return trip. Best is to bargain and look for sharing options. We shared the boat trip with another family of 4 at total cost of 800/-.

One can enjoy variety of water sports like Jet Ski Ride, Speed Boat, Banana Ride, Bumper Boat, Water Scooter, Kayak Ride and so on.

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There are various food stalls right in the middle of the water serving mouth-watering local snacks like ‘Chutney and Pola’. It’s an amazing experience to have food at these stalls while your seats almost submerged in the water.

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What else to do/see:

Malwan has various other attractions and the activity that has caught on highly with tourists here is Snorkelling and Scuba diving!

While at Malwan a visit to Rock Garden, Sindhudurg fort and Jai Ganesh Temple is a must. One also has option of visiting few other near-by beaches: (I would suggest stay put up just at one beach)

• Tarkarli Beach
• Tondavali Beach
• Kolamb Beach
• Vengurla Malvan Beach

<Ganesh idol made in Gold at Jai Ganesh Temple>

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The route from Goa to Kudal via Sawantwadi (on Goa-Mumbai highway) is awesome and had it been monsoon, the drive would have been a real pleasure!

From Kudal one can take either take a polished longer route via Chauke or an internal shorter road. Don’t expect too many signages on the way or while driving in Malwan. It’s best to ask locals.

Panaji to Chivla is about 110 kms.

You will find a lot of local vendors’ enroute which are good option for buying some local green vegetables and Devgad Hapus mangoes!

Itinerary

Day-1

• Started at Panaji-Goa at 10:00 AM, reach Chivla at 1:30 PM
• Lunch: Packed food for lunch from home
• Evening Tea: Onion Pakoda and Tea MHH
• Evening spent in around MHH on hammock enjoying the breeze and later playing at the beach
• Dinner: Vegetarian meal at the property at the backyard of MHH. Rs. 70/- per Thali. Regular home cooked meal with Chapati, Rice,Daal, salad, Tamdi Bhaji, Solkadhi. No Sweet dish.

Day-2

• Alarm at 7:00AM. I did my Suryanamaskars on the beach when the Sun had just started shining
• Breakfast: at MHH. Tea, Upma and Bread Omelet
• Left for Tsunami Island at 10. [11 kms from Chivla]
• Lunch: Returned from Tsunami Island for lunch at Chaitanya in Malwan
• Evening: Spent at MHH on hammock and playing at the beach
• Dinner: again at the property behind MHH. Fried prawns medium size Rs. 150/- plate with about 15 pieces

Day-3

• Alarm at 7:00AM and hit the beach for light jogging
• Breakfast at MHH: Shira, Bread omelet and black tea
• Left Chivla at 10:00AM
• Visit Jai Ganesh Temple on return journey
• Lunch at Spice Goa, Karaswada, Mapusa Goa
• Dinner back at home